Time for a quick update.  I’m going to be making some changes.  Or rather, I’m going to be making more changes.  Some of them I’ve already implemented.

On the personal front, I’ve started a diet and exercise program.  I’ve been on it for three and a half weeks as of this writing.  I’ve not lost a lot of weight, but I think that’s partly because I’ve put on a bit of muscle mass.  I just know my pants seem to be a size or so too big, my blood pressure is lower than it’s been in years, I’m sleeping better, and I have more energy.  I’m going to be keeping this up.

I may have mentioned in a post (or was that just on Twitter) that I won a compound bow in a raffle back in May.  Turns out I’m not half bad at archery.  My son took some classes with me over the summer.  While he won’t have a lot of time to pursue the hobby, at least during marching band season, I’m going to be putting in as much time on the range as I can.  Hopefully more than once a week, which is all I’ve been able to do for the last month or so.

A colleague from down the hall has resurrected an off campus chess group.  My son and I have been playing in it.  We’ve been meeting in a coffee house on Friday nights, and when it closes, we head over to a Mexican restaurant for good food and live mariachi music.  Now that high school football marching band season has started, we’ll be cutting back on that.

There are some trends at work that have made me get serious about planning an exit strategy.  I’m not going to say what form that will take just yet since I’m still considering some things.  I want enough secondary streams of income in place to be able to walk away on my terms and at my time.

Writing will be one of those streams, but not the only one if what I’m working on bears fruit.  And at least initially, probably not the main one.  Speaking of writing, I’ve placed two short stories in anthologies in the last month.  I’m hoping to make some progress on some short novels this fall.

As far as blogging, I’m going to move in a slightly different direction.  I’ll still be blogging here, but I’m going to increase my presence on Futures Past and Present.  I want to read more science fiction, especially adventure sf and space along with rereading authors I grew up reading who have fallen out of favor these days.   I’ll still post here, but there will be fewer reviews of novels and more of short fiction.  I’ll also do more art posts and continue to feature selected authors on their birthdays.  I’ve tried to do a couple of birthday posts on Futures Past and Present but haven’t been able to get the stories I had in mind read before the day was over.  My intention is to get a couple of posts up there over the weekend, so keep an eye out for them.

So what’s up with you folks?